


A Darker Shade of Blue

by certified__trash



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black Paladin Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, I promise, Im not sure yet, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Season/Series 02, Rating May Change, everybody is not ok, everything will work out though, keith will help, klance might become a thing, lance is insecure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 00:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10477944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/certified__trash/pseuds/certified__trash
Summary: Shiro is missing, but the universe needs Voltron. Someone needs to substitute for Shiro, and who would have thought that it would be Lance, the self-proclaimed seventh wheel?(It's more serious than the summary sounds I promise)





	

**Author's Note:**

> I fell in love with the idea of Lance piloting the black lion in Shiro's stead about a week ago and immediately started writing this. I don't have a beta so I'm sorry for any mistakes. I am a very busy college student so I won't be on a strict update schedule, but I'll try to update at least once a week.
> 
> I'm not sure I like the title so if anyone has any ideas for a new title I would love to hear them!

     Lance was a family man. He cared for those around him whether they be his family back in Cuba, fellow students at the Garrison, or, more recently, team Voltron. It should be no surprise that Lance viewed the other paladins, as well as the princess and Coran, as family; so, it devastated him to stand in the black lion and hear Keith say the two words Lance didn’t want to hear.  
      “He’s…gone…”  
      Lance might not have been super close to Shiro, but in their little space family the black paladin had been a sort of father figure. He was the oldest of the five paladins, the most experienced (he was, after all, the only one who actually graduated from the Garrison), and he had been through things that the others couldn’t even begin to imagine. Lance knew that Shiro hadn’t left on purpose, but that didn’t stop him from getting upset after seeing what was happening to his team…his family.  
      The first few days had actually been the easiest. Everyone had been motivated and focused on finding Shiro, but as the days dragged on, the team’s moral dragged as well. Everyone was still trying to find the black paladin, but they weren’t doing so in a healthy way. Allura has all but locked herself in the control room. Pidge spent all day in the green lion’s hangar working on some sort of gadget that had the potential to help in the search for both Shiro and Pidge’s family. Hunk helped Coran fix things around the castle that had been damaged during their fight with Zarkon. Then there was Keith. The red paladin trained all day; he didn’t eat much and had heavy bags under his eyes from lack of sleep.  
      Everyone was on edge. The only ones who were eating regularly were Hunk, Lance, and Coran, and nobody seemed to be getting enough sleep. They would go out on scouting missions to search for Shiro, but when everyone came back to the castle with no sign of their leader, it would just make everyone’s already low moods plummet to rock bottom. It was at these times that Lance was most frustrated about Shiro’s disappearance; he just wanted everyone to be ok.  
      Lance did everything in his power to make everyone as ok as they could be. He joined Hunk and Coran when they were fixing things around the ship as well as helping Hunk out in the kitchen. If Pidge or Allura hadn’t eaten, then Lance would bring them food; if they hadn’t slept, then he would drag them to bed. He had even carried a so-exhausted-that-they-passed-out Pidge to their room before.  
      Keith was difficult. He wasn’t eating or sleeping much, so Lance often found himself walking to the training deck with two plates of food. While the red paladin easily accepted food, sleep was another story. If Lance couldn’t get Keith to go to bed, then he’d stick around and train with him so that he wouldn’t have to be alone. Training together was a surefire way to wear out the red paladin enough to sleep, just up the difficulty and the hard work would do the rest.

  
* * *

      There was a large window in a secluded hallway on the ship that Lance liked to sit at and just look out at the stars. He had always enjoyed stargazing, but there was definitely a difference between looking at the stars on earth and looking at them from space, even more so since he was among the first humans to ever see the stars in this galaxy.  
      This was Lance’s personal time. He supposed that most people would look out at the unfamiliar galaxy and feel small and insignificant, or they would feel homesick from not even seeing the Milky Way galaxy itself, much less the stars and planets inside it. However, Lance didn’t need stars to tell him he missed his family, and it’s hard to feel super insignificant in the universe when you are literally it’s only hope. Sure Lance had his moments of insecurity, but he was part of something special; the blue lion chose him, and he tried to remember that. So, when he looked out at the stars, instead of feeling small or homesick, he simply took in the beauty of the constellations.  
      “Paladins!” came Princess Allura’s voice from the castle’s intercom system. “Please report to the control room! There are some very serious things that we must discuss!”  
      Lance stood with a sigh. This was most definitely going to be about Shiro, which meant that everyone’s moods were just going to go down even more. He wished that they would get a distress call or something from Shiro so they could go get him and everything would go back to normal. Hunk could relax, Allura could take better care of herself, Pidge could get some sleep, and Keith could stop training himself until he almost passed out from exhaustion. Everyone could be ok.  
      But Lance knew that that was just wishful thinking.  
      The control room was silent when Lance arrived. Everyone was just standing around Allura in a clump, and no one was making eye contact.  
      “Right. Now that you are all here, we can get started. I have received news that Emperor Zarkon’s son Lotor has taken over the galra empire. I do not know much about him as he was not around in my time. He has not done much yet, but we should be on our guard,” Allura stated. Although her voice was authoritative, she still wasn’t looking directly at any of the paladins, or even Coran for that matter. “If he were to start attacking, then we would need to be prepared to fight back.”  
      “But how would we fight back?” Hunk asked. “Without…without Shiro we can’t from Voltron…” Everyone was looking at the princess by now, but she still wasn’t meeting anyone’s gaze.  
      “Well…that is not entirely true,” replied the princess. She took a breath before looking up at the paladins.  
      “We are going to have to find a substitute black paladin.”  
      Lance tensed, as did the rest of the team. He knew that this was the logical solution to their problems, in fact he had been expecting it. He was sure that everyone had been expecting it, but that didn’t mean that they would accept or like it. He knew that it would be hard to accept and trust a new leader. Everyone and been quick to accept Shiro because he was Shiro. He was a legend! He was Lance’s hero! It would take a lot of time to learn to accept and trust a new leader, and time wasn’t something that they had a whole lot of. Also, a new leader would bring whole slew of other issues. Even though they know that it would be unfair to the new person, it’s only natural to resent a replacement for someone special or important, and Shiro left some big shoes to fill. Whoever was chosen, Lance did not envy them.  
      There was only one person that Lance could think of that the team would have no issues with substituting for Shiro, and thus avoid all of those problems. “Princess, could you do it?”  
      “Absolutely not!” exclaimed Coran without hesitance. “Allura is far too important to be put in that kind of danger!”  
      “Coran is right. We can’t put Allura at risk like that.” It was Keith. Lance supposed he was right. Being the torso and head of Voltron put the black paladin in the most risk, but then who else could do it?  
      “Well then who? Allura is the only other leader here, unless you want to bring in someone new to lead us.”  
      “When Siro and I were stuck on that planet together after our mission to rescue Allura,” Keith paused and met the group’s gaze before continuing, “he told me that if anything happened to him, he wanted me to lead in his place.”  
      Lance was unsure, and it had nothing to do with the rivalry between himself and Keith. The red paladin didn’t have any of the qualities that Lance thought made up a good leader. He rushed into things, he was reckless, he thought more with his gut than with his brain, and he only spent the minimum amount of time with the rest of the team. The only thing Keith had going for him where Lance was concerned was that he trusted Keith as wholly as he trusted each of the other paladins.  
      “Alright. We will honor Shiro’s wishes. Keith, starting tomorrow you will begin to bond with the black lion. She might not accept you at first, but over time I believe that Black will become more open to the idea and to you,” Allura commanded.  
      “But now who’s going to fly Red?” Hunk had posed an excellent question. Now there was another pilot-less lion.  
      “One of you will have to switch and Coran or myself can take over for whomever the red lion chooses. The green, yellow, and blue lions are far more accepting of new paladins than the red and black lions. Tomorrow each of you will try bonding with the red lion. You already possess a small bond with all of the lions, including Red, from forming Voltron so it should be easier than if you were complete strangers.” The three paladins nodded in understanding. “Alright, that is all. You are free to go.”  
      Lance followed followed his fellow paladins out of the control room and started making his last rounds of the evening to be sure everyone was going to be getting sleep. For the sake of the team and the universe, Lance hoped that he was wrong about Keith’s leadership skills.


End file.
